Feudlings

by Wendy Knight

  “He’s dead. Taylor is dead,” she said, sobbing.

  “How?” Charles demanded.

  “I don’t know. The Prodigy must have arrived because I couldn’t see what was happening anymore. And then I saw… nothing. The Prodigy must have killed him.”

  “What information did they get from him?” Charles leaned forward on his pulpit, his face intent.

  “Nothing. He told them nothing,” she cried.

  Next to Hunter, Shane tensed and he clenched his fists. “Take me to Adlington,” he said, turning on Charles.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Mr. Delyle. You’re safe here. We have people in Adlington already,” Charles said. His face was a cold, hard mask as he tried to stare Shane down.

  It only infuriated Shane more. “The Prodigy is in Adlington. We know where he is! Send me there and we can end this war,” Shane yelled.

  Beside him, Charity made a small noise of distress, but Hunter stepped up next to him, ready to go. “This is what Shane was born to do, right? Let him go.”

  “No. There’s no need. We’re still gathering information on the Edren Prodigy. When we know enough that we can guarantee your victory, we’ll send you in. Until then, you are safe here. We have work to do, so kindly exit to your rooms.” Charles held his arm out toward the door.

  Shane glared at him, furious, but Hunter grabbed his arm and jerked him from the room. Charity followed, still shaking. As soon as they were in the hallway Shane jerked his phone from his pocket.

  “What are you doing?” Hunter asked.

  “I’m going to Adlington. The Edren Prodigy is going to pay for this,” Shane said, dialing as he walked. “Holmes? Hey. You still in Adlington?” He paused, glancing behind him at the closed door to the Council chamber. “Yeah I heard. It sounds bad. Can you do a saldepement?” Again he stopped, ignoring Hunter and Charity, who stared at him, open-mouthed. “Yeah, thanks man. Counting down. Ten, nine, and eight…” He hung up and continued counting.

  Hunter’s face was grim when he turned to Charity. “Stay here where you’re safe. We’ll be back for you.”

  Her eyes were sad and her face was white. She was leaning against the wall weakly, and he hated leaving her like this. He also wanted to ask her what she had seen but there was no time. The doorway was opening and he stepped through, leaving Hunter no alternative but to follow him.

  Shane leaned back and pecked a quick kiss on Charity’s cheek. “We’ll be fine, little cousin.”

  She said nothing as she watched them go.

  ****

  Shane had never been in a battle before but his blood sung as it raced through his veins, anxious to be doing something. The screams of the dying chilled his blood, but the roar of the fight below them called to him in a way he had never imagined before. Without hesitating, he threw a shroud spell over himself and then Hunter

  They stood on an outcropping of rocks, watching as the red and blue flames roared in the field below. It was the same field where Ada Aleshire’s home had burned, and Shane couldn’t help but feel that this battle was different. It would be the one that ended the war, and even then he wasn’t afraid. He refused to believe that he wouldn’t win. It wasn’t an option.

  “There!” Hunter yelled, pointing. Shane followed his finger and saw the Edren Prodigy, or at least a shimmer of what should be the Prodigy. The flames and spells he was throwing gave him away. They burned so much hotter and were so much brighter than any other Edren spells out there, cutting down everything in their path. Nothing was able to withstand them.

  “Let’s go.” Shane jumped down from the rocks and raced toward the field.

  ****

  Ari didn't have time to watch the battle for new arrivals. It was the most intense fight she’d ever been in. Edrens and Carules alike were falling like crazy. She had been hit once, on accident, and she was fairly positive it had been a kill spell, but whoever had thrown it was weak. It stung, but she barely noticed. She was tracing spells into the air as fast as she could, fast enough that even her eyes had a hard time following. She threw them at anything blue.

  "Get down!" she screamed, tackling a woman near her just as nasty flames in the form of a fist flew over their heads. Ari rolled over, already tracing a lirik into the air, and pushed it hard toward the Carules behind them. He shrieked as it hit him, but Ari was already moving, whirling around and tracing a masas into the air. The masas weren't as powerful as a kill spell but they were able to hit more people at once, which was helpful, being surrounded by Carules like he was. They didn't last long and Ari spun away, her braid flying in an arc around her face.

  Keep moving, keep moving. Then she froze. Across the field she saw blue flames so bright, everything else looked pastel.

  "The Prodigy." She gasped in surprise. A spell hit her from the side and knocked her flying, but it would only leave a bruise. She was on her feet in seconds, tracing spells as flames burned from her fingertips, scorching the air. So much smoke, it was getting hard to breathe, but no one was going anywhere. This battle would not end until there was no one left standing to fight it. In the ten thousand times she had gone over this moment in her mind, she had always envisioned the battle parting like the red sea, leaving her alone to face the Carules Prodigy.

  That didn’t happen. She fought her way toward him, throwing as many spells as she could in every direction, but it was like fighting through molasses. Then he stood in front of her, and the battle around them dimmed. He wore a shroud, as she did. The tall, formidable, also shrouded figure standing next to him could only be his Guard.

  "This ends now!" the weird, altered voice screamed at her. She didn't respond as her hands raced through the air, tracing the lirik, throwing it with as much force as she had. She watched him dodge out of the way as he and the shrouded figure beside him both traced spells. Well, this could be difficult, she thought as she flung herself to the side, both spells barely missing her.

  Then from behind, more Carules flames. She was surrounded by Carules on all sides. They had boxed her in, and although her Edrens were fighting to get to her from the outside of the circle, they weren't making much progress.

  “Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. Springing to her feet, she spun and dove and twisted away, burning spells into the air and throwing them at whomever she happened to be facing at the time. She got hit, several times; the only spells she was worried about were the Prodigy’s, and those she avoided. The Carules were starting to break up, many of them killed from her wildly-thrown flames, and the rest wanting to avoid certain death and trying to escape. The Edrens, too, were making progress getting in to her.

  And then, in an explosion of bright red fire, another shrouded figure burst into the circle, landing next to her, throwing powerful spells.

  Will.

  She knew it was him instantly, even though she couldn’t see him.

  “Get out of here!” he screamed at her, but she ignored him and they faced the Prodigy together, shoulder to shoulder. She was burning spells, the flames bursting from her fingers and setting the grass near her feet on fire, but they were stomped out before they had a chance to be a real threat.

  Will was burning spells into the air so fast Ari wasn’t even sure half of them were real spells and not just scribbles. Flames were shooting in a thousand different forms as he shoved the spells away from him toward any Carules, Prodigy or not.

  Ari threw spells while diving out of the way of blue flames. In the time it took her to drag herself up off the ground, she realized that at least one set of powerful, bright blue flames wasn’t aimed at her anymore. She turned toward Will in horror. The Carules Guard focused all his attention on Will while her brother was still trying to fight off the Prodigy, the Guard, and the Carules.

  And it had been a long time since he had fought. Ari threw herself in front of him, tracing a masas into the air and shoving it toward the Guard, the Prodigy, anything she could hit.

  They dove out of the way, giving Will a chance to breathe.<
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  “You need to go!” Ari screamed. He ignored her, just as she had him. Then the Guard got around her. She saw the spell coming from the corner of her eye; Will had seen it too. He jumped to the side, but he wasn’t fast enough and it slammed into his shoulder, spinning him clear around. Somehow he managed to stay on his feet; Ari saw that several Edren had also turned on Will. They must have realized he was a Renegade.

  She swore under her breath and burned a protective spell, throwing up a wall of red flame between Will and the misguided Edren. She couldn’t kill them, but she wasn’t going to stand there and watch them attack her brother, either.

  “Work with me, will ya?” Will bellowed in frustration.

  She blinked. She had been so busy trying to protect him she hadn’t realized she was in his way. She nodded, and they turned together. Another mild spell hit Will in the shoulder, but as he started to fall, Ari thrust her hand out, grabbing his wrist. She spun him around as he traced a spell into the air and threw it at the Prodigy. The flames shot out, and the Guard dove, shoving the Prodigy out of the way. The spell missed the Prodigy but hit the Guard, although not squarely. He flew backward but was back on his feet in seconds.

  Will threw another spell at the two shrouded figures facing them, and spun away to fight a Carules behind them before his spell even had a chance to hit. Ari watched Will’s spell hit home with satisfaction and the Guard flew backward. It hadn’t been a kill spell but it had knocked him out.

  The Prodigy was racing to his side, and Ari seized on his distraction, burning a lirik into the air and pushing it toward him. At the last minute he flung himself backward. The spell missed him, barely. Still on his knees, his hands flew through the air, as fast as hers, and he pushed a spell at her but again, she jumped out of the way. The rest of the field was silent, Edren and Carules alike, too exhausted to continue, all watching their two Prodigies with baited breath.

  With the Carules Guard down, it was his Prodigy against Ari and Will, and he didn’t stand a chance. As if of one mind, they both started throwing every powerful spell they had against him, spells that worked together, nidib spells that trapped and entangled him.

  Ari burned her final lirik into the air and pushed it toward the trapped, tangled Prodigy, watching as if the whole thing moved in slow motion. The Prodigy struggled fiercely, but he couldn’t loosen the spells with his hands tied. The flames burned toward him, closer and closer.

  Time caught up with a snap, and a portal opened next to the Guard, who Ari had failed to notice was sitting up, the saldepement spell burning in front of him, his cell phone on the ground. Several Carules rushed through, surrounding the Prodigy. One screamed as her lirik hit him, and he burst into a writhing mass of flames. The rest of them threw spells back at Ari and Will while two more were untangling the Carules Prodigy from his traps, and then they were dragging him through the portal with his Guard.

  Ari screamed in frustration as she watched the enemy she had hunted, the enemy she had come so close to finally killing, dragged like a lifeless dummy through the portal and out of her reach.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Mr. Delyle, you were nearly killed. If your cousin hadn’t told us we needed to get in there to you, you would have been killed and we would have lost the war. You were unprepared to face the Prodigy and—”

  “I was unprepared because he has been fighting his whole life and you keep me stuck away in a school for Normals! Of course he was fighting better!”

  “In all reality, he wasn’t fighting better. We had him until his Guard showed up,” Hunter drawled lazily from where he was draped over a chair in the Council room, looking mildly uninterested. Only Shane, knowing Hunter as well as he did, could see the fury burning just below the surface.

  “Ah. I see. So you were ready to fight the Prodigy as long as he was outnumbered and you had all the Carules on the field there to help distract him,” Charles said, sarcasm dripping through his words. “You will not face the Prodigy again until we say you are ready. Is that understood?”

  Shane glared at him, crossing his arms over his chest and raising his chin. “I’ll face the Prodigy whenever I can find him.”

  “Are we through here? You’re not going to win this argument, Charles. No offense. Shane needs to rest so he can go back to his pretend life and continue convincing everyone that he’s a Normal.” Hunter stood up and stretched.

  Charles opened and shut his mouth, unable to form whatever words he was trying to find.

  Charity stepped forward from where she’d been standing in the doorway, biting her lip. The portal still shimmered where Shane had opened it the day before, and without another word they stepped through it. With a furious flick of his wrist, Shane snapped it shut behind him.

  “Okay, Charity, spill. How did you know we were in trouble in Adlington?” he asked, turning on her as soon as the last shimmer had faded.

  She paled” I — I saw it. I saw the battle.”

  “What?” Hunter yelled.

  Charity shrank away, pain flashing across her face.

  Shane sent Hunter an annoyed frown before turning back to Charity. “Char, you can’t see the Prodigy. Either of us. No Seer can. Remember?”

  “I knew you’d say that!” She turned away, hugging herself. “But I did! I saw the whole thing. And I saw the Prodigy attack Taylor, too.”

  “You what?” Hunter’s chin dropped.

  “Well, not exactly. I didn’t see the Prodigy. It was like I was looking through his eyes. I saw— I saw the spell and Taylor…” She trailed off, turning back to them. “I did. No one believes me,” she whispered, a tear trailing down her cheek.

  “Well, obviously you saw it or you wouldn’t have known I was in trouble to call me and get them to burn a saldepement. What’s not to believe?” Hunter asked, struggling for a casual comeback, but Charity only looked at the floor. Above her head, Shane and Hunter exchanged a look of concern, neither sure if this new development was a good thing or just more of a curse for Charity and her luminous silver eyes.

  ****

  Ari spent the weekend recovering at Will’s house. She was exhausted and bruised, nothing that a warm bath and the healers in the colony couldn’t take care of. Will, too, was beat up, but that just made him more excited. “I was there, Ari! You needed me and I was finally there!” He yelled for about the sixteenth time.

  “You shouldn’t have been. I only had Carules to worry about. You had Carules and Edren. You could have been killed,” Ari muttered from where she lay sprawled on the couch watching TV.

  Will grinned at her. “Better me than you,” he said with morbid enthusiasm.

  “Not even close.” Ari grunted without even looking at him, but a smile she couldn’t fight broke across her face, and she glanced up. “We do make a pretty good team though, don’t we?”

  Will burst out laughing. “Yes we do.”

  Ari tipped her head so she could see him better. “You know what’s strange that I’ve been noticing about Richard?”

  Will rolled his eyes. “Everything?”

  “Yeah. But no, I mean every time I come back from a battle, he is thrilled. Like, glowing, bouncing on his toes like a giant bunny thrilled. What’s his deal?” Ari stretched for the remote and flipped the TV off. Will just watched her, eyebrows furrowed. “And why does he keep pushing the war? What is he gaining?” she asked.

  “I am not the right person to ask that, Ari girl,” Will said, turning to stare out the window. He was silent for several minutes before he glanced back at her. “The war is profitable for him. Edrens keep giving him money, lots of money, to fund the war. He’s the one that manufactures their combat gear. I suppose he keeps pushing it because it is making him rich.”

  “How do you know all this?” Ari asked, a teasing smile playing around her mouth.

  Will winked. “World’s greatest hacker, baby!” At her rolled-eyes-response, he glanced down at his watch. “You’ve got school in an hour and a half. Are you going?”
<
br />   With a squeal, Ari sat up, swinging her legs off the couch. “I can’t believe I forgot to tell you! But with everything that has been going on…” At Will’s raised eyebrow, she shook her head. “Anyway, remember my friends I told you about? Shane and his cousin Charity and their best friend Hunter?”

  Will nodded. “Yeah, kinda hard to forget about them when that’s the topic of every phone call I’ve gotten.” Raising his voice to a high falsetto, he continued, “Shane did this and batted his big blue eyes and my heart stopped beating and I was in loooove.”

  Ari turned bright red and chucked a throw pillow at him as hard as she could, which wasn’t that hard since she had used most of her energy in the fight and the rest of it sitting up in such a rush.

  Will caught it with a smirk. “I never said that!” She frowned at him.

  “Not in so many words.” Will raised an eyebrow.

  “Shut up. Do you want to know my news or not?” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Of course, Ari girl. Please continue.”

  Will fought to keep his face solemn. He failed, but Ari ignored him.

  “Will, focus. This is important.” She sighed when Will continued, as if not hearing her. “Are you going to run away and marry—”

  “They’re Carules, Will.”

  “…Shane or Hunt…Wait! What?” Will exploded, mid-sentence.

  “They’re Carules. Shane used his power to heal a girl at my school. He had no choice. So they had to tell me.”

  “Please for the love of all that is good tell me you did not tell them who you are.” All the color drained from his face.

  “Of course not. Do you think I’m an idiot?” she snapped. She thought it best not to tell her brother that she had, in fact, thought about telling them. But there hadn’t been time. And she had decided against it. Yeah, that’s it, she thought.

  Will fell back against the armchair he was leaning on. “Okay we’ve got to get you out of there. You’ll stay here until we find somewhere else for you to—”

  “No.” Ari stopped him, her hand out.